A Legacy Onward

University of Manchester (UK)

I was delighted to hear from a professor of history at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom last week. He wrote:

I read it for the first time about a year ago, and then taught with it last semester in my senior undergrad class on China’s international connections during the second world war. It fills a real gap in the scholarship and my students and I enjoyed both the human stories and the big picture of how CBI was tied together.

Rails of War is a timeless tale of working-class Americans being ordered to undertake a herculean task in a land not of their making and a culture unfamiliar and ageless. They accomplished and exceeded their mission under attack by a merciless enemy, indigenous saboteurs, as well as famine, monsoon, and disease. I’m pleased beyond words that Rails of War resonates today and that the travails of the brave men of the 721st Railway Operating Battalion lives on. Here’s to the University of Manchester. Well done.